Job summary
- Main area
- Older Adult Psychology
- Grade
- Band 4
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job ref
- 350-MHC7476904
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Leigh Moss Hospital / Hartley Hospital
- Town
- Liverpool / Southport (PR8 6PL)
- Salary
- £27,485 - £30,162 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 02/10/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 30/10/2025
Employer heading
Assistant Psychologist
Band 4
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
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Job overview
We are looking for 1 x Assistant Psychologist to help provide quality services for older people and people living with dementia in the Merseyside region. The role is as follows:
0.5 - Inpatient mental health ward for older people (Dunes Ward - Southport)
0.5 - Ward for people living with dementia (Fern Ward - Liverpool)
The successful applicant would be part of a large Psychology team, consisting of Clinical and Counselling Psychologists and Assistant Psychologists, with strong values related to person-centred care and human rights-based approaches.
Main duties of the job
We promote a ‘shared-team learning’ ethos with regular opportunities for CPD, reflective practice and group supervision. We regularly have trainee psychologists on placement with us and we are proud of our links with the local clinical psychology training programme. Each of the roles would also involve being part of a wider multi-disciplinary team; where you would be encouraged to champion psychological interventions and work in partnership within the wider teams.
You’ll also work to support people with a range of psychological issues by providing psychological assessment, therapy and interventions to service users and carers. As a team we regularly utilise a broad range of models. We also routinely complete neuropsychological assessments.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We are looking for someone with a strong commitment to social justice as we are committed to supporting people from socially disadvantaged communities and advocating for the needs of older people and people living with dementia. We are also looking for someone with excellent communication and people skills and a passion for improving the lives of clients and their families.
You may be expected to audit and evaluate a range of outcomes in terms of the benefit for service users, staff and the wider service. Furthermore, within the team, we are keen to encourage research submissions to relevant conferences and for publication. An active interest in research and publication will therefore be an advantage.
We would encourage you to please state in your application which post(s) you are interested in and whether you are seeking full or part time hours.
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS
Essential criteria
- A second class honours degree or higher in psychology or psychology as a main subject
- Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
Desirable criteria
- Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis
KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
- A minimum of 12 months previous experience of work with people with mental health problems and/or other disabilities
- Experience of teaching and training in the application of psychological principles to mental health problems
- Experience of research evaluation and audit of the application of psychological principles to mental health problems
Desirable criteria
- Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
- Previous experience as an Assistant in an NHS setting.
- Experience of psychometric assessment.
- Proven track record of experience of research evaluation and audit of the application of psychological principles to mental health problems
VALUES
Essential criteria
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Support
- High professional standards
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Change oriented
SKILLS
Essential criteria
- High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.
- Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis
- Experience of report writing
- Demonstrated high level ability to communicate sensitive information to service users, carers and colleagues in a way that facilitates engagement
- An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or other disabilities.
- A demonstrated ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context
- An understanding of psychological principles applied to health care.
- Undertaken further, relevant post-graduate study
Desirable criteria
- Skills in SPSS for Windows.
- Undertaking further relevant post-graduate study leading to recognised qualification.
PERSONAL
Essential criteria
- Clear experience of interacting effectively with staff from all disciplines
- An interest in working with people with mental health problems or other disabilities
- Clear experience of interacting with people with mental health problems
- Ability to work with a high level of autonomy within the boundaries of the assistant role.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Samuel Hughes
- Job title
- Principal Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0151 330 8500
- Additional information
Dr Sarah Butchard
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
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